Discover the best tourist attractions of western Ukraine with Maria Zawaski! Maria is a freelance journalist, born on the West of Ukraine, got married to Canada. "Now, when I live abroad, I recommend to all my foreign friends to visit western part of my home country Ukraine. Why the western one - it is because I used to live there, so I am more familiar with that part of the country and I can tell lots of stories about the culture, lifestyle and traditions of Ukrainian West," Maria says

Ukrainian Baby-Boom Is Coming

Ukrainian government has increased aid for the birth of children in Ukraine. So, since January, 1, 2008 a volume of government's aid for the birth of first child became 12240 UAH (UAH - Ukrainian hryvna). Ukrainian women got paid for the birth of first child 8500 UAH to the January 1, 2008. Such a decree was made by government of Yulia Tumoshenko in 2005 (Yulia Tymoshenko used to be a Prime Minister of Ukraine from February, 2005 till September, 2005).
After returning to the post of Prime Minister in December, 2008, Yulia Tymoshenko made a new decision about increasing of aid for birth of children in Ukraine. In accordance with this decision, a woman who gave a birth to first child, get pay a 12240 UAH, 25000 UAH for the birth of second child, 50000 UAH for the third one, and 50000 UAH for birth of all the next children as well.
The new government document has some important improvings, comparing to the paper made in 2005. So, according to the government document-2005, if woman gave birth to twins, she received 8500 UAH for the birth of everyone. Now, since January 1, 2008, if Ukrainian woman having twins, she get pay a 12240 UAH for the child who was born first, and 25000 UAH for the baby born second (doesn't matter time difference between birth of them, it can be even few minutes :)
It is not hard to compare Ukrainian hryvna to the currencies of other countries, and, probably, all these sums of Ukrainian aid for the children will not look like a huge money for citizens of USA, Canada, Great Britain or European Union. But comparing to Ukrainian wage, sure, it is even very big financial support. For example, a middle monthly wage in Ukraine in March, 2008 was 1702 UAH ($340). So, Ukrainian parents just happy when they get such a big support from government for the birth of their child.
Actually, a low level of middle incomes of Ukrainians was a main reason of sad demographic situation in Ukraine. For example, in 1991 (when Ukraine became independent country) a population of Ukraine was almost 52 millions, in 2007 already 46,5 millions. Death rate in Ukraine exceeds birth rate almost twice. For example, in 2007 472 thousand babies were born in Ukraine, and 762 thousand people died, according to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine.
But if to take a look at another statistic information from the same source, we can see (finally!) a small tendence of increase of birth rate in Ukraine. In 2005 426 thousand children were born in Ukraine, in 2006 already 460 thousand, and finally in 2007 472 thousand. Seems like Ukrainian baby-boom is coming.

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You don’t need visa for travel to Ukraine

If you are citizen of USA, Canada, European Union, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, you don’t need a TOURIST visa for travel to Ukraine. Decree about it was signed in 2005. Tourist visa to Ukraine means that you are going to stay in Ukraine not more than 90 days. So for your short term stay in Ukraine (less than 90 days) you just need to have a travel passport and to buy a ticket, that’s it.
P.S. The same rules work for the citizens of Japan, Andorra, Vatican, Iceland, Monaco, Norway and San Marino. People of these countries don’t need a tourist visa to Ukraine, too.